Christine Bryant
You may recognise these lines from the Coleridge poem The Ancient Mariner which describes the fate of a sailing ship becalmed at sea. However, after all the significant rain events we have experienced in the first months of this year, these lines became the daily reality for a number of communities in the motu, including Pirongia and Ōtorohanga, where drinking water was unsafe.
It is easy to bemoan the rain, the amount of water falling from the heavens, but in fact New Zealand is particularly blessed, being one of a handful of countries which has sufficient and consistent fresh water to sustain both its population and its food production.
Two others, for example, are Canada and Finland.
In the case of New Zealand, our surplus of water enables us to meet 85 per cent of our energy needs by renewable energy. It also enables our population of five million to export 85 per cent of our produce to feed approximately 40 million people across the world.
Water, more particularly, the imminent starting up of the new combined water entity across the Waipa-Waikato, has been exercising the minds of our councils.
On the one hand, uniting to ensure the delivery of quality water and equally high-quality treatment of wastewater makes good sense.
However, for some smaller councils, water services make up up to one-third of their revenue and council staff.
This raises questions of their future viability, so as with all questions of governance, this is a more complex issue than it appears on the surface.
Water is also a recurring theme in the Bible, unsurprising given the lack of fresh water in the Palestine-Israel region where life-giving water is a scarce and precious resource.
One of the most beautiful conversations is recorded in John’s gospel when Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at a well. It is about midday.
The usual time for fetching water was early morning or evening, but this woman is not welcome at the well then.
She is astonished that Jesus asks her to draw water for him to drink because she is a Samaritan and because she has had six “husbands” and is not married to the current one.
Then follows a conversation about the living water of life which God provides through Jesus Christ. “Sir,” she says, “give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty …” Jesus reveals to her that he is the Messiah. She is so excited by this news that she tells the whole village to come and listen to what he has to say. (John 4: 4-38)
The next time it rains, the ground is soggy and everything feels damp, it is worth remembering that we are blessed in Aotearoa because we have access to clean water for all our physical needs and to the living water which God supplies for all our spiritual needs.
Christine Bryant
